


Conversation for Beginners

by embarrassing old stuff from LJ pre-2015 (prevaricator)



Category: NewS (Band)
Genre: Awkwardness, Gen, Kusano is almost certainly OOC because I know nothing about him, M/M, mentions of Japanese culture that I'm not explaining because only one person is ever going to read, unedited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-04
Updated: 2009-09-04
Packaged: 2018-10-15 19:56:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10556810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prevaricator/pseuds/embarrassing%20old%20stuff%20from%20LJ%20pre-2015
Summary: Kusano and Shige go to see fireworks together.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Repost from LJ

**Conversation for Beginners**  
PG, gen (Kusano+Shige), 781 words  
Summary: Kusano and Shige go to see fireworks together.  
Warnings: Awkwardness, unedited, Kusano is almost certainly OOC because I know nothing about him, mentions of Japanese culture that I'm not explaining because only one person is ever going to read this

For [](http://daelite.livejournal.com/profile)[**daelite**](http://daelite.livejournal.com/) to whom I do not apologize. For anything. This is what you get. Happy extremely belated birthday?

  
“Hey, are you going to see that fireworks display?” Kusano asked one day at rehearsal. “We should go together!”

 _Crap_ , Shige thought. He really wanted to see the fireworks. He really didn’t want to go with Kusano. What would they talk about? They could barely hold a conversation with each other for more than two minutes on a good day. But with his luck, if he turned Kusano down and went anyway, he would run into Kusano there.

“Okay,” he said, resignedly. Maybe he could write a cheat-sheet of conversation topics ahead of time. Or maybe Kusano would bring some other friends, and Shige could just quietly follow them around for the whole night.

“Great! I couldn’t get anyone else to go with me!” Kusano cheered.

So much for that idea.

 

 

The day of the festival, Shige tried to sneak out of the house in normal clothing, but his mother caught him at the last minute and forced him into a yukata.

An actual yukata. Not even jinbei.

He would probably be the only guy at the festival in a yukata. People stared at him as he walked down the street.

Kusano met him at the train station. “Nice yukata,” he said, snickering.

Kusano was in jinbei.

“My mom made me,” Shige mumbled.

The train was crowded with festival-goers. Shige spent the whole ride trying not to fall on Kusano. Kusano didn’t seem to have any trouble with falling on him, though, and so Shige spent a lot of the ride with Kusano’s hair in his face.

An old grandma accosted them as they got off the train to compliment Shige’s yukata. “Japanese men should always wear yukata!” she cheered.

Shige stammered a response and let the crowd drag him away. Kusano followed, giggling. “Looks like you’ve got a fan, Shige! Sexy, sexy yukata-wearing Japanese man, please marry me so we can have lots of yukata-wearing children!” He clasped his hands and batted his eyelashes at Shige.

Shige scowled and tried to stomp away, but the crowd was too thick. Kusano immediately caught up to him. “Aw, is the sexy Japanese man embarrassed?” he cooed.

Shige clenched his teeth and refused to respond. Five minutes later, he regretted his decision, as they fell into a long, awkward silence. They didn’t speak again until they arrived at their destination, and then only to discuss finding an open place to sit.

“It’s crowded,” Shige said.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Kusano replied. “Hey, there’s an open spot behind those hot chicks over there, let’s go sit there!”

He set off for the spot before Shige could reply that it was a bit small for the both of them, and there was a much larger spot in the other direction. He sighed and followed.

The spot was too small for them to properly spread out the tarp Shige had brought, so they flopped it on the ground and unfolded it to fit. When they settled down, Shige was stuck sitting on a large, uncomfortable wrinkle, and Kusano’s elbow was digging into his ribcage. Kusano’s really sharp elbow. Shige could feel the bruise forming as he sat there.

Once they were settled, the awkward silence set in again. “So,” Shige began, but he couldn’t think of a way to finish the sentence.

“So?” Kusano asked.

“Never mind.”

“Oookay,” Kusano said.

The silence made an encore appearance. Shige checked his cell phone clock five times over the next few minutes. They still had fifteen until the fireworks started, despite Shige’s best efforts to be as late as he could get away with.

“So,” Kusano ventured. “Got any girls you like?”

“Uh, no. Not really,” Shige said. _If there were, I wouldn’t tell you!_ Kusano would rib him to no end, and possibly also go find the girl and tell her, just to make Shige’s life miserable. “You?”

“Me? Yeah, yeah. There’s this girl in my class with a huge rack. I got her number yesterday,” Kusano said. One of the girls in front of them turned around and gave them a dirty look. Kusano didn’t appear to notice.

“That’s nice,” Shige said.

“Yeah,” Kusano said.

Shige sighed in relief when a bunch of sudden whistling noises started up, signaling an end to the need for conversation for a while.

 

They got up and headed for the train station the second the fireworks ended. Shige normally liked to wait until the trains got less crowded, but he didn’t think he could stretch the conversation out that long.

“That was nice,” he said, as they boarded the train.

“Yeah,” Kusano replied. “I liked those Doraemon fireworks.”

“Yeah,” Shige said.

They said nothing else for the entire train ride home.

 

 


End file.
